The lockdown in India brought to light many things about our country, the good and bad alike. Among these was the plight of one group of people in particular: migrant workers. They have not only been politically ignored, but also continue to be perceived as an inconvenience by most urban Indians. A few months ago, there was a sudden surge in media coverage about migrant workers in India, perhaps for the first time at such a magnitude. But now, these workers have been sidelined once again.
Statistically, migrant workers make up about 35% of India’s urban population, according to a recent National Institute of Urban Management (NIUM) study conducted in Hyderabad to analyse the impact of the lockdown on them. While theory suggests that migrant workers move from more impoverished to less impoverished states, this is not entirely true, considering that Bihar and Kerala have comparable rates of out-migration within the country. Hence, a large part of domestic migration from rural to urban areas for employment is caused by movement away from regions in the countryside with high population density.
Upon moving to urban areas, most migrants are engaged in the construction and hospitality sectors, both of which have high risks of worker exploitation and unsafe working conditions. About 20% of such jobs employ daily wage workers, which increases their vulnerability due to high job volatility. Some are employed through informal contractors, further decreasing their job security. Their well-being is hampered by a lack of access to basic services like healthcare, sanitation, safe water supply and transportation. Migrant workers almost always have to bear out-of-pocket the cost of medical ailments or injuries suffered at work.
As a result, many end up not seeking treatment at all. They also end up consuming fewer calories per rupee. They bring food preferences from their native places and end up paying higher values for them in urban areas. All of this adversely affects maternal health and can have the unintended result of further affecting cognitive development and health of their children. Domestic migration also has other layered implications for women. Many are “left behind” in their native place, contributing to the feminisation of the agricultural workforce.
However, these women are still unable to fully exercise their decision-making powers in such cases, given that a shockingly disproportionate percentage of land ownership titles are held by men. Women themselves also constitute a significant part of the migrant worker population. In addition to the aforementioned sectors, they are also employed in beauty and health parlours, garment factories, and as domestic help, live-in maids, and nurses, among other occupations. While remittances improve the livelihoods of those without better opportunities, and cheap labour ensures the functioning of different sectors of our economy, it becomes imperative to ask: Whose living standards are being improved by domestic migration?
The answer is clear. The living standards of everyone besides the migrants themselves, who continue to work in extremely vulnerable conditions. Migrant workers, as a group, are among the most neglected strata of our society. One wonders why there has been such a lackadaisical attitude towards them. It seems primarily because migrant workers have extremely low electoral participation levels. In a study conducted by Nikhar Gaikwad and Gareth Nellis, it was found that they are less likely to receive a call back from political representatives as compared to other segments of the population.
It was also observed that for myopic political gains, migrant workers are often used as a prop to generate a nativist sentiment to garner votes, observed prominently in Maharashtra, for instance. This is done by portraying migrant workers as “outsiders” who are out to steal the jobs of natives, whereas in reality, their engagement in the labour force has been the backbone of economic growth in the country. In fact, almost all migrant workers send significant remittances to their native places, spurring economic growth and livelihood rejuvenation in areas that were becoming stagnant.
In his book India Moving, Chinmay Tumbe states that nativism is mostly a convenient ruse for political gain based on faulty evidence. He highlights that cultural differences in India that spark nativism and discrimination manifest from identities such as language, religion, caste and race (especially for migrants from the Northeastern regions of India). It hence becomes the ethical responsibility of the country and its citizens to be more aware of their plight and grant them the same basic human rights we all feel entitled to. These include the right to shelter, water, job security, health insurance and the ability to engage politically meaningfully, at the bare minimum.
The NIUM survey recommends some ways to accommodate their issues. It suggests the creation of a helpline designed specifically to address concerns regarding their employment, safety, healthcare and such. The need to ensure legal identity proof and documentation for migrant workers was especially emphasised to reduce the risk of exploitation. Among other things, there should be a creche and schooling facility in their native language close to their workplace, health and life insurance cover, the right to have dignified and affordable living conditions and the provision to visit their native place once a year with paid leave entitlement.
Finally, it suggested the creation of a job portal for migrant workers, highlighting that about 50% either lost their jobs or faced a decrease in income since the lockdown began. While these are important recommendations, the labourers themselves stated only basic needs like water, sanitation, health insurance and ease of transport. In addition to this, urban India must make sure that the migrant worker label is de-stigmatised and ensure they are treated with the same dignity that we expect ourselves to be treated by the institutions we are a part of.
(The author is graduate of economics from the College of Wooster, Ohio, US, with research expertise
in development economics and gender theory)
Maansi Kumar
Works at an ed-tech start-up in Gurgaon (maansikumar21@gmail.com)